Undercover
by maybespyware
Summary: Robin never expected anyone to help him, least of all a ghost kid calling himself Phantom. (Apprentice fic with a twist, no Phantom Planet.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: It's time for another cringy crossover fanfic! Posting this now before I have time to regret it. Happens in an au where the Titans never discover the nano probes, and Phantom Planet never happened. Criticism welcome!**

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Robin knew something was off about this mission. It wasn't based off of anything rational, just an instinctual gut feeling, raising a platoon of red flags for him to stare at while he flung himself towards the target. It was the random chills in the air, the sound of rustling fabric, the unshakable sensation of being watched. Robin just cast it off to his training with Batman. Being a hero without powers was a disadvantage in it of itself, so being alert and aware could be the key difference between you and tomorrow. But although it was helpful, he'd gotten false alarms many times over the years. So he neglected to tell the other person over the comms about the troubling danger signs. It was all just paranoia. Deep down, Robin hoped he was wrong. With a rushed stop, he skidded onto the nondescript rooftop of RAY Tech Labs.

"Good." The roaring static in his ear relented as the voice began speaking. "Now, I trust you've studied the floorplans well?" Robin was tempted to give back some snarky retort, but all he managed to make out was a hushed "Yes."

"Yes, what?" The static seemed to grow louder through the earpiece, choking out the last syllable of the question. Robin sighed.

"Yes, master."

Before he had time to let what he had just said sink in, Robin took off towards the vent. One tool and four loose screws later, the vent cover fell to the floor, Robin catching it right before it could hit it with a loud clang. Then he slipped in.

The lab had terrible security. From what Slade had been drilling into him, they had only recently opened up a base of operations here in Jump, and apparently didn't feel the need to install any anti-theft measures so soon. Just two dozen guards, posted here and there, and a few oddly placed cameras with laughably large blind spots. And, of course, an alarm sending a signal straight to the Titan's Tower. In fact, the lack of security was weird for a lab with such allegedly powerful tech that Slade deigned it worthy enough to steal. It sent an uneasy feeling down Robin's back as he practically walked around the building in the open. If it wasn't for Slade's assurances, he would think he was walking into a trap. He chalked it up again to the paranoia.

Getting into the main room was a joke. Apparently they were stupid enough to give common guards their own keycards, so it was only a matter of knocking one unconscious and stealing it.

Robin was finally right where Slade wanted him to be. In front of him was a small metal circle, roughly the size of his palm, resting in a glass case in the middle of a messy workspace. Green rings decorated the outside, but aside from that it looked hardly notable. Robin himself didn't know what it was supposed to be for, but what Slade wanted, Slade got. Quietly, trying not to fidget with his tools, he cut open a hole in the case, setting down the separated glass next to his feet.

He knew he wasn't supposed to close his eyes, to stay on the lookout for any stray guards lining up a shot, but Robin did so anyways as he reached for the object. He could pretend, and as childish as it seemed, it helped. He could pretend he wasn't here, as a petty thief working for the most dangerous man in the country, stealing priceless technology. He could pretend he was once again the boy wonder, reaching for something out of his utility belt, ready to save the city. Maybe he was disabling a bomb, about to detonate and blow up downtown. Sometimes he would pretend he was reaching for a carton of milk in the fridge, and that he was back in the living room with his friends. His family. He could even ignore the "Excellent" crooned into his ear.

Robin only opened his eyes when the alarm went off, and with it came a kick of adrenaline. With a practiced turn he booked it down the hall, searching for the vent he exited from on his right. The guards were firing at him, the shots just missing the thief's body as they tried to incapacitate him. They were easy enough to avoid, and if he ran fast enough he could possibly escape before the Titans hit the scene. He was being a little too hopeful.

"Robin!" From the voice, he could tell Cyborg was right behind him. Robin didn't spare him a glance as he launched himself at the vents, starting his escape towards the rooftops.

"Here I thought you would be excited to see your former friends," Slade taunted, apparently uncaring that Robin had enemy forces hot on his heels. "But I wouldn't try backing out of this confrontation."

"I have the object, what does it matter!" Robin answered, not bothering to hold back his tongue from both the annoyance and adrenaline coloring his tone. Maneuvering through the tight airways, he was the least of all concerned about whether or not Slade would get to see his little apprentice fight. There was a beat of silence at the other end before Slade replied.

"We'll discuss your behavior when you return to the haunt. For now, fight. That's an order."

Robin once again opened his mouth, an angry outburst he knew he would regret later, before a couple sharp thuds emanated from the shafts behind him. The apprentice attempted to turn his head as best he could in the confined space, only to find nothing. Heart in his throat, he checked to make sure the device was still on him and then clambered out of the building as fast as he could. Eventually, Robin burst out the same way he came in, not stopping to revel in the cool air that hit him as he came out. With both of the brunet's feet on solid ground, he immediately began making his way to the building on the left before something slammed in front of him. With a grunt, he turned around to find the source of the chunk of rock now lodged in front of him, only to come face to face with Raven. The shock left him momentarily stunned, and the opportunity was immediately seized by Beast Boy. The superhero, now the form of a green cobra, wrapped around his arms with breakneck speed, faster than Robin had had time to process what was happening.

"Now, Phantom!" Came the regal, clear voice so distinctly Starfire's, as all the red flags he had seen before started to fall into place. This was an ambush. Panic seized him as he flailed wildly, trying desperately to escape from Beast Boy's grasp. The air around him froze. He was faintly aware that Slade was barking something into his earpiece, but he was too focused on escaping to care.

Robin's eyes widened as he felt a bone chilling breeze hit him in the chest, tearing away his consciousness as his eyes rolled up into his head and his body went limp.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I always forget how bad I am at writing action scenes until it comes time to actually do them. Sorry if anything seems confusing, because I tried. I'm thinking of having the p.o.v.s alternate from Robin to Danny every other chapter, so we'll see how that works out. Also, I kind of have this head canon where when ghosts are overshadowing people, certain talents and instincts get carried over from the host to the ghost, so catch me sprinkling that in there.**

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If someone had asked Danny three weeks ago what he imagined life in Jump City to be like, he would have answered something along the lines of schoolwork, homework, bullies. The last thing he would have envisioned was himself on the rooftop of a startup lab, surrounded by the legendary Teen Titans looking ready to kill, overshadowing _the _Boy Wonder. Yet here he was anyways. And the most surprising thing about this scenario was that this meant everything was going to plan.

He flashed the team a quick thumbs up, as discreet and nonchalantly as he could, keeping up the pretense of a struggle before Beast Boy went slack and Danny pretended to knee him in his weird snake head. The green hero quickly got off Danny, but not before he dropped something into the ghost's open palm. Human again, he stepped back to Cyborg, who finally caught up with them, staring at Robin like he'd grown a second head. Danny was now holding a small, thin tracker. Okay, phase one of the plan was officially over.

Phase two shouldn't be much harder. He would fight them for a couple of minutes, so as not to raise suspicion, and then find his way back to the hideout of the villain Robin was working with. Scope out the place, get as much info as he could, wait until the Titans came to raid the place, be home in time for breakfast. Simple.

Danny hoped he wouldn't mess it up.

There was a long moment of awkward silence before Cyborg struck first, charging in with a punch that "Robin" barely avoided. That was immediately followed up by a few shots from Raven, still flinging around whatever spare pieces of debris were in her vicinity. He was still busy trying to make sure his head wasn't taken off right as Beast Boy decided that was the perfect moment to literally ram into him from behind, sending him sprawling out over the roof. Jeez, they told him they weren't going to go easy on him, but he didn't know they would be trying to kill him. Rolling to the side, Danny was about to start making a break for it before a loud crackle of static pierced through his ears.

"Robin, your body cam went offline for a moment. What is happening out there?"

The voice, who he could only assume was the Slade they were after, had caught him off guard, and instinctively he turned his head to the right before he realized it was coming from the earpiece lodged into his ear. He sounded way different than the hero expected him to from the few pictures he'd seen of him, a deep baritone voice that kinda creeped him out. Danny only realized he was at a standstill when starbolts wrecked the floor right at his feet and he sprang back into action.

Actually getting into the guy's body wasn't the hard part. It was _being _Robin that was going to make it or break it. And despite the solid B+ he had in Drama, Danny was not liking his chances of pulling off a convincing performance. He was already blanking out as he raced for a response to the question. Was he even supposed to reply at all? The Titans already told him that Robin never talked in front of them, so he could probably assume that was a rhetorical question. Was it?

Right as he was hesitantly opening his mouth, jumping over another attempt at a headbutt by Beast Boy, the villain was back and berating him.

"Are you just going to dance around here all night? Fight." Slade made sure to put a harsh emphasis on the last word, the whole sentence dripping with impatience. It only made the ghost scrunch up his eyebrows in annoyance.

Danny hadn't even heard the guy say five sentences and his tone was already grating on his nerves. He was already mentally shuffling through his arsenal of witty comebacks before internally slapping himself. Yeah, backtalk the person you're supposed to be working for, idiot. That won't make him suspicious at all.

Raven shot him a look, obviously confused why Danny hadn't already left the scene. Tapping twice on the earpiece, he shook his head slightly as she narrowed her eyes in thought. That's the best signal he could give, but somehow he figured that Raven got the idea. He turned his back towards the edge of the building, opting to face the next attack head on. Luckily for him, the Titans seemed to be trying their best to telegraph their attacks before they unleashed it, so it wasn't hard to grab Cyborg's arm as he leaned in for a punch. Giving it a weak twist, he paused as he realized he had no idea how to fight back. Danny's fingers twitched as he attempted to charge up an ectobolt, before realizing that this body couldn't do that.

Flushing with embarrassment, he gave a good kick to Cyborg's main components and was suddenly stricken by how weird it felt. The kick went way farther than he expected it to, and he almost stumbled into another starbolt from Starfire from the recoil. Slade himself was staying oddly quiet, given the terrible performance "Robin" was giving. Yeah, this was going to be difficult.

Time to recalculate this. He obviously wasn't going to be able to take on four really powerful superheroes, even in a pretend fight, without tipping off Slade, who apparently had live footage of the battle and wasn't in a particular hurry to order his henchman off the scene. Especially when he's never fought in an overshadowed body before. He had to leave, now. Excuses could come later.

Looking around, Danny spotted his opening. Without waiting for another order, he swatted away the green bird flitting around his head and dashed between Raven and Starfire, straight to the other side of the battlefield. A twinge of uncertainty sparked in him as he approached the edge, because shit, he had never jumped a building before, until an instinct he knew he didn't have took over and he touched down safely on the adjacent roof. Not even bothering to question what just happened he ran, with no particular direction in mind other than away. Even though Danny kinda knew that whole fight was a mess, he couldn't contain the euphoria building up in him as he vaulted from surface to surface, almost as if he'd been doing it his entire life.

Phase three was a go.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Looking back on it now last chapter was pretty bad, since I rushed it out along with chapter 1, sleep deprived and tired. So, I've been spending more time on this chapter, focusing more on how I imagine overshadowing works and focusing on characterization and all that jazz. Still struggling writing villain dialogue though. Don't worry, something interesting will happen soon. For now, I hope you enjoy today's update.**

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When the adrenaline finally wore off and the tenseness of the situation he left behind evaporated, Danny found himself on a rusted ledge, perched on a decrepit warehouse nestled in an abandoned section of the Jump City Harbor. He didn't even know how he got there, following some weird gut feeling to dip into dark alleyways and taking confusing shortcuts. To be frank, as long as there weren't cops behind him, he didn't care. The Titans had probably taken care of the whole fiasco with the lab already, and were now monitoring the tracker he had silently pinned under the metal collar the kid was wearing. Just to be sure no one was tailing him, he spared a quick glance behind him, sniffling a bit as the smell of saltwater and oxidized metal hit his nose. Nope, no lights, no sirens, no helicopters. Danny was in the clear.

He was kinda tempted to laugh. This wasn't the hero's first time making a break from the police, but if you discounted the whole situation with FreakShow, this was the first time he was technically the criminal here. After all, it wasn't like he had returned the item Robin had stolen. The weird metal ring thing still hung awkwardly around his belt, poking into the Kevlar suit at strange angles. The ghost was tempted to unclip it and take a closer look, but a small nagging voice in his head told him it was probably a bad idea to do so. Besides, they'd give it back to the company after they nabbed the baddie. So he just left it, and leaned back onto the tiling to catch his tilted breath.

Even sitting down felt weird. Now that Danny had a moment to lean back and think, it kind of hit him that he was in someone else's body. Slowly, he flexed Robin's fingers in front of his face, watching as the fading light from the dying streetlamp next to him glinted off the metal armor surrounding his forearm. It was all accompanied but a strange feeling of tightness, like he was wearing a full body suit just a tad too small for him. Danny had never overshadowed anyone for so long before, at least not long enough to notice all these weird quirks that came along with someone else's life. First off, the stamina he had when he was swinging from place to place was definitely not his. Sure, he had powers, but flying barely took any effort compared to sprinting full speed through the night. The actual Danny could barely last half a mile in Ms. Tetslaff's class, but this kid easily lasted through a high stakes fight and what felt like a one kilometer marathon through the city without breaking a sweat. And man, did he run fast. If anyone had looked up on his mad run through Jump, Danny was certain they would only see a blur. The fact that Robin was considerably shorter than Danny didn't do anything for his ego either.

Secondly, he was pretty sure Robin was still there. Yeah, he didn't really know where people's souls went when ghosts overshadowed them, but he kind of assumed they weren't present at all when he was "borrowing" their bodies. He definitely didn't care where Dash went. But Danny knew for a hard fact that it wasn't his personal instinct that saved him from a nasty fall back there, or what had led him to his current hideout. It was probably because Danny just wasn't comfortable suppressing another human being's free will to hold them for too long, but he never had this sort of effect with others. And he was only now realizing that, being in an empty and silent harbor, he could sort of make out a faint whisper in the back of his consciousness. It wasn't anything legible, but Danny could just tell that it was Robin. It sent a spike of guilt up his chest, one that Danny had to bite down and suppress. Robin, he reminded himself, was a criminal. He chose to go around stealing stuff for one of the most dangerous villains in the city limits. Though thinking it over now, the story didn't really add up for him. Dude was _the _original teen superhero, and even if Danny didn't subject himself to Tucker's fanboying he would know that the Boy Wonder was tough on crime. And Danny would be a liar if he said he wasn't secretly hoping to maybe meet the walking traffic light himself while moving to Jump. Well, as a certain ghost had told him, be careful what you wish for. He sighed as he tilted his masked eyes up to meet the starless sky. This whole situation with Slade was kinda fucked.

"Taking a detour?" Crap, how long had he been standing there? Danny bolted upright, half expecting to see the villain right in front of him, before that sick voice cut through the low hum of static once again. Speak of the devil… "Hope you're enjoying the sights."

Danny tried to calm himself. The man, now lacking his prior frustration, was creepy. And from somebody half-dead, that was a real compliment. Thankfully, he only had to think of what to say for a moment before he pressed the button on the earpiece to respond.

"Had to make sure I lost the Titans." Robin's voice reported back, slightly lilting as Danny's nerves got the better of him. The noirette cringed as the bird's voice slightly echoed around him. Slade didn't seem to notice, or care.

"You should have stopped to check that at the alley near Main Street. Instead, you headed 15 minutes in the opposite direction. Care to explain?" Anxiety finally under control, the possessed thief smirked to himself. If there's anything Danny was known for, it was pulling excuses out of his ass.

"That's the direction I came from while I was heading for the labs. If there's a chance anyone important saw me heading that way, I could probably expect to be met with a full brigade of police officers on patrol." Danny was met with a long moment of silence on the other end, leaving him slightly antsy. He didn't wait for a response before he hastily tacked on, "Besides, if you saw me going the wrong way, you should have stopped me and redirected me to the route you wanted me on. After all, you're the one who stuck a body cam on me." Shifting the blame, classic evasion tactic. Though the sarcasm he added in as an afterthought? Not the best idea.

"I had business." Slade said, as if that explained everything. "I thought you were capable enough of handling the situation on your own." A retort burst out of him before he could mentally slap himself.

"Making plans to burn down the local orphanage?"

Shit. He flinched, expecting a harsh criticism from Slade, but his brows furrowed in confusion as he received a small… chuckle? Yep, the guy was definitely laughing to himself. It was hard to make out over the constant white noise overlaying the audio from the earpiece, but what he did hear was the definition of an evil laugh. Slade must have been practicing it too, because Danny could list three separate ghosts off the top of his head who would kill for a laugh that ominous. He crouched down, torn between the urge to either ask Slade what was so funny or to start rethinking this whole operation. The subdued laughter vanished as quickly as it came.

"Reckless, stubborn, foolish." Slade began, speaking in a dangerously low voice, almost as if he was trying to taunt the thief. Yet at the same time, he sounded almost fond, like a dad light heartedly scolding his son for taking the last cookie. Danny stiffened in discomfort, mouth suddenly going dry as he got a bad feeling of deja vu. "If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have given them the time of day. But you were always different, weren't you Robin? So much potential, waiting to be refined. After all, you and I are so very much alike."

Before he had the chance to blink, the hero was immediately overcome with blinding rage. Sparking from nowhere deep in his chest, he instantly didn't have the headspace to even process _why _he was so angry. The sudden desire to rip out the speaker in his ear and stomp on it, to throw it into the ocean as far as he could manage overcrowded any reasonable part of his brain telling him to calm down. His mouth gaped open, the intensity of his fury shocking Danny into a standstill. He clenched his fists until he was sure the knuckles turned white. That voice from before was back again, giving him ideas on just what to do to this pompous, evil, scheming _bastard_ that thought he had the right to make comparisons, the right to try and be a father to him, the right to control his friends, his family, _his life-_

A loud crackle of static in his ear pulled Danny back to reality, the red rage he felt just moments earlier evaporating in seconds like mist. The noirette wasted no time in scrambling to his feet, off balance as he almost slipped off the tiled roof in the process. Even though his mind was reeling, he took a shallow breath, giving his full attention to Slade's next sentence.

"Although, this is a conversation that's best to be had in person, wouldn't you say? I'll be expecting you back at the haunt in 15 minutes exactly."

Willing to do anything to take his mind off what happened, Danny started planning out his route to get to the mentioned "haunt". He'd retrace his steps all the way back to where Robin was first spotted that night, then start looking around for any obvious villain hideouts. Then Danny would send the alert that he'd made it in, and wait until the cavalry arrived. That was a simple enough plan. Go back, look around, sneak in, kick butt. Then try to make sense of everything that's happened over a well deserved breakfast. Slade's next sentence, despite not making any sense, was the least of his worries as Danny gathered his strength to start making his way downtown.

"However, next time you feel nostalgic, you don't have to make up an excuse."

With those words hanging over his head, suppressing another small burst of anger, he sprinted back into the air. The moon shone onto the docks, illuminating the large painted logo spray painted on the wall of the warehouse.

Pier 41.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed my work so far. This is my first actual fanfic, and I really appreciate your feedback. So I'd like to take some time to answer your reviews!**

**ADraconicScribe: I'm glad you liked the story! Sorry for replying to you a bit late.**

**Guest: Even if I was lucky enough to be trusted with someone else's story, I don't think I'll be writing any more apprentice fics after this until later. But thank you for the suggestion, and I'm glad you enjoyed my writing enough to recommend this to me.**

**Funkatron: Whoops, guess I did make it kinda similar. I haven't checked any other stories before I uploaded, so I must have missed it. And yes! I'll eventually reveal the events leading up to the mission, including Danny's recruitment. Gotta make sure I've got that tension first. But thank you for taking the time to check out and review my story! You really made my day.**

**And sorry for the late upload, guys. Winter break is over and that means a lot of my free time is gone as well. But luckily for you, this is where stuff finally starts to heat up.**

**The one thing I had trouble writing about was Slade's lair location, since I'm pretty sure they don't mention where it was in the show? So I improvised. If they did mention it and I just missed it feel free to call me out on my bullshit. **

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"Lost?" Danny scowled, fingers lightly tapping the earpiece to respond.

"No, I'm just making sure there's no one around to see me come in." Static filled his ears again. Danny was currently touring the back alleys of the city's outskirts, frantically searching for anything that might have been a lead back to the haunt. For 10 minutes it was trial and error, checking anything that looked suspicious and then observing it until Robin's thoughts told him to move on. It was a slow process, especially considering that every couple of minutes he was startled by a sound coming up the alley towards him, a can clattering over pavement or footsteps on the sidewalk, and hid until the road was clear.

Danny should have realized sooner he was acting shady.

"You'd think the faster you get back, the less of an opportunity there would be to see you in the first place." And his current predicament was not being helped by Slade. Forget about not blowing his cover, he was just concerned what Slade would do to Robin if the ghost arrived even a second late. The way the villain talked to the boy wonder sent off such a strong vibe of awful it made Danny physically sick.

"Doesn't hurt to be on the safe side." He said, moving onto the next section of the street he still had to scour. There was a long pause on the other side, and Danny knew that probably meant he wasn't going to get an answer back.

He continued looking around at the decrepit buildings around him, wondering what he was supposed to be looking for in the first place that would set off Robin's memories.

Speaking of Robin.

The longer he was inside Robin's body, the more sure he became that there was no way the ex superhero was working for Slade willingly. That rage from before had to come from somewhere, after all. And it was only made worse by the fact that the way Slade talked strongly reminded him of a similar psychopath in his life. Danny grimaced as he kicked a stray rock far into the road.

Ugh. Even if he wasn't physically there, Vlad never left Danny alone. But there was a key difference between the two that stuck with him. Where Vlad was smug, prideful, infinitely annoying, and sometimes hilariously incompetent, Slade was calm and manipulative, the way he projected himself implying he would always be one step ahead of the rest. All the more reason to have the Titans raid the place after he found it. The black and orange mask he saw staring down at him in the missing leader's office stuck out in his thoughts.

"Take a left." Came the direction, snapping Danny harshly out of his thoughts. He quirked up an eyebrow in confusion, hesitating for a second before he slid into a thin space between two industrial apartment buildings.

The directions from Slade kept coming, dictating to Danny what route to take as he navigated the underside of Jump City's bright streets. Danny felt compelled to question it, since Slade seemed to be the type to strand people up shit creek without a paddle, but slowly rationalized it away. He was probably just getting impatient. Which would mean bad news when he finally reached the place, but at least Danny wasn't stumbling around the city like a moron.

A factory stood in front of him, the once colorful brand name on it now barely legible from exposure to the elements. It was small, just another blemish of the city dotting the coastline. It wasn't anything special. But from the way his heart sped up and the anxiety building up a lump in his throat, he knew this was the right place.

Slade had stopped talking ever since his approach, and Danny was almost regretting the silence as he made his way through the heavy doors, the ear splitting screech of metal scraping on concrete filling the air. It was a big sparse complex, old work equipment and depreciated automaton the only decor. Any step he took hit the concrete floor, the thud echoing around the support beams and made the hero's presence no secret. It was perfect for a guy like Slade.

Lodged in between two conveyor belts by the corner was a heavy round steel door, set into the ground. Okay, he'd finally found the front door. Now the question was how to get in. Because from his perspective, the door was looking pretty impenetrable.

He started worrying that there might be an eye scanner or something on there. And while Danny didn't know what Robin's natural eye color was, he was willing to take a wild guess it wasn't green. Before he could start panicking properly, the problem solved itself. There was a soft mechanical hum in the background, accompanied with a hiss of air as the door slowly swung open to allow access.

Slade must have remotely activated it. It was good in the sense that Danny wouldn't have to stumble in trying and possibly failing to open it, but it made his blood run cold as he realized that meant that Danny wouldn't be able to open it once it shut.

No, no more worrying. Robin wouldn't hesitate to enter, and neither would Danny. He reached under the collar, and with a small click of a button he activated the tracker's signal.

That was phase 3.

Without even a second to process what he was getting himself into, Danny jumped through the rabbit hole. This was where the party started.

He landed in darkness. Above him, he could barely hear the noise of the door creaking shut, drowned out by the suddenly deafening sound of giant gears. He wasn't sure what to do, desperately trying to get his now fully human eyes to adjust to the dark. Then there was a distant click as an overhead light flickered on, and now he was squinting from the unexpected brightness. When he was finally able to take in his surroundings, Danny couldn't help but feel slightly awed. The machinery dominated the room, filling the vast empty orange space with steel and smoke. Platforms crisscrossed above his head, railings bent and out of place. In the back of his head, he sort of wondered if all the big baddies had the same pretentious evil lair interior decorator on speed dial. All of that was intimidating enough on its own, but the main showstoppers were the screens.

They were big, and that was even when they were far from Danny, casting an eerie glow from the edge of the room. Tech lined the wall, rounded in a half circle around a bronze cast throne. Broadcast on them was Robin, awkwardly dodging attack after attack, sprawling against the roof, kicking Cyborg away. Tonight's footage.

There, standing before the scrap metal chair with his back facing him, was Slade.

"15 minutes exactly. I'd say it was impressive, but you seemed to need a little guidance." Danny winced as his voice came in crystal clear in his ear, confused on how he could hear Slade so well despite several feet away before it dawned on him the earpiece was still transmitting audio. "Welcome back."

The man looked over his shoulder, light catching the bronze of his mask. His eye stared Danny down, as if beckoning him to come closer. Something about Slade brought him at a loss for words. Feet moving on their own accord, they brought Danny closer to the enemy. This was it. Do or die.

Slade turned to observe his approach. Looking at the man up close and personal gave him a sour taste in his mouth, and the weird feeling he had about this guy amplified ten fold. The slate eye looked so dead and devoid of life it made him question why his ghost sense hadn't gone off, before he remembered that a) Slade was supposed to be human and b) Danny was also now technically not a ghost himself. But man, blurry photos did not do him justice.

"We have much to discuss about your performance tonight. I hope you're prepared for it. But first…" Slade extended his left hand. "The device."

It didn't feel right, unclipping something seemingly valuable from his belt and nonchalantly handing it to somebody who seemed so dangerous. But he did it nonetheless, trying his best to keep a straight face.

Slade turned it over in his gloved palms, inspecting it with a careful eye until he deemed it had passed whatever test he had just put it through. Setting it down on the table behind him, Slade tilted his head down and made eye contact.

Fear coursed through him, his heart deciding to finally break out his chest as the thought crossed his head that he had been found out, until he reminded himself that he was wearing a mask. Slade couldn't see his eyes.

"Your belt." Danny was half tempted to protest that, because why wasn't Robin allowed to have weapons if he was working for you, but he bit his tongue as his hands drifted down to his waist to undo the clip keeping it together. He wasn't willing to risk making any mistakes. The Titans might have been on their way, but who knows what Slade would do if he was revealed too early. And it wasn't Danny felt vulnerable without the weapons, he could leave Robin's body at any point if something went wrong, but some small part of him was nervous. After passing the strip of metal to Slade, he didn't notice that Slade hadn't opted to set it down along with the tech. Instead, he kept it in his grasp.

For a fleeting second, Danny was afraid that Slade was going to ask for him to take off his mask, too, before dismissing it as a ridiculous thought. He wouldn't have a reason to want it, would he?

"Now then, let's talk." Danny gulped nervously. Slade, thankfully, didn't seem to notice. "Have I taught you nothing? Investing such time into you only to have nothing but an amateurish excuse of a fight to show for it." Slade messed around with something on his forearm, and the screen directly behind Slade changed from a single clip of Beast Boy charging at him to Robin, fist held stupidly up in the air, before landing a kick forward into Cyborg and stumbling back. Punches missing Starfire at point blank range. Him stumbling as he hastily jumped to leave the scene.

Slade didn't turn back to even glance at the footage, which irked Danny to no end. The jerk probably memorized everything on screen before his arrival. Figuring out he probably had to say something for himself, he went with the first excuse that popped into his head.

"I-I didn't want to hurt my friends." It wasn't a full lie. Danny sure as hell wasn't whooping with joy when he saw Cyborg's face twisted up in pain. Suddenly he felt the urge to facepalm when he realized he had made a mistake in his wording. "My former friends." He corrected.

Take the bait, take the bait, take the bai-

"Really? That explains why you were so eager to get away from them." Slade replied, and for a bit Danny thought he was home free. "But I thought you knew better than to let your attachment to them become an obstacle." His tone turned dark and foreboding, almost implying a threat. Danny mindlessly took a step back.

"I've seen you hold back. This," He motioned to the camera footage. "Almost feels like an insult. And you know I don't take kindly to disrespect, boy."

Yep, this was setting off every warning signal in his body. He didn't even know why. So far this has been nothing but Slade standing there scolding him like Danny was just caught scribbling on the walls.

"They wer-"

"I'm not finished speaking." Slade's single eye narrowed, and Danny broke out into a cold sweat. Good, at least he didn't have to worry about responding more than he had to. Slade turned around again, this time to fiddle with the items spread on the table.

Slade wouldn't turn his back to someone he didn't trust. A shaky sigh of relief left his mouth before he tried to clamp his hand over his mouth as casually as he could. Danny could hear Jazz in his brain, telling him to calm down. Just a few more minutes and the Titans would blast the walls on this place down.

"And then there was the body cam footage." Slade was back to talking and Danny was reminded that he was still in hot water. "They cut out at 12:34 precisely, and were out for around 4 minutes before coming back online. Tell me, what happened there?"

"Maybe you should take a class in DIY spy gear." Danny answered, suddenly uncaring of the sarcasm spitting out of his mouth. Hang in there for a bit more, Fenton. "Your camera must have just stopped working for a bit. Beast Boy might have damaged it." He won't catch on that Cyborg messed with the electronics in the area for a few minutes if he just doesn't say anything.

"Those are military grade body cameras. It's unlikely they would have stopped working so spontaneously." Danny was sorta tuning him out, since Slade didn't have anything better to do than to berate him, studying the screens. You know, now that Slade had brought it up, he noticed that nothing being displayed was from Robin's point of view.

"Around that time, your hormone levels indicated high fear and panic."

Was the body camera still not working? Was the footage unrecoverable? It was stuck replaying the same montage of Robin flying off the roof.

"I'm assuming that empath tried to make contact. I would hope unsuccessfully."

The perspective of these shots were higher up, seemingly coming from the building towering over the labs. But that wasn't right. Cyborg told him the shut off signal's range should have reached further than that. The body cam was lucky to have turned back on, but all standard security cameras should have been completely non functional afterwards.

But that would mean it was operating during the _entire_ fight.

"In fact, if I didn't know any better, I would assume you were a different person."

He'd _fucked up. _

Danny only had seconds to react before Slade whipped around and nailed Robin in the head.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Woah late upload. Got sidetracked with school and personal projects so I didn't have too much time to write, especially since, to be honest, I'm having a little bit of trouble figuring out exactly where to place certain events. Along with today's update, I updated the summary and rating. Hope that's okay with you guys. Enjoy! **

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Robin felt like he'd been thrown out of a washer going at the highest setting.

Drifting in and out of consciousness, the first sensation he felt was the cold hard floor pressed up against his body. The second thing he noticed were the yells, muted and far away, bits of phrases too muddled to comprehend.

It was giving him a terrible headache. A small part of Robin was unwilling to deal with this. Just close his eyes and drift off back to the haze settling over him like a weighted blanket. Eventually, through the inconsistent spikes of pain emanating everywhere through his battered body, his self preservation instinct kicked in hard.

Masked eyes snapped open, immediately recoiling as bright lights hit his retinas without warning and filling him with a slight nausea. Sight adjusting, he didn't even have to think hard to figure out where he was. The copper orange walls and gears that blurred near the corner of his eyes indicated his location quite clearly.

The urge to throw up became stronger. Slade. His mind spit out the word with pure hatred, but he couldn't quite get sounds past his lips quite yet. Fingers came up to his face, brushing the spot on his temple where pain throbbed underneath his skin.

What had happened? His last memory was him blacking out at the labs. Did Slade retrieve him? He grimaced, imagining one of the Sladebots dragging him back. Great. And nothing in his memories explained why he was unconscious. Or why he was so roughed up. Did Slade start taking it out on him even before he woke up? Probably did. Heartless bastard.

And then something struck the ground next to him. Robin jolted fully awake, staggering to his feet as a spray of rubble shot up from the spot next to where he was moments prior. Adrenaline coursed through his system, head tilting up to come face to face with the source of the attack.

The teen was entirely monochrome, white hair complimented by a black heavy duty hazmat suit. The only real color on them was their neon green eyes, Robin catching glimpses of them while the other fighter twisted and turned to avoid attacks. He was an obvious meta-human, evidenced by the fact that he was darting in the air, coupled with the green bolts of energy hitting randomly in Slade's direction. That explains what almost hit Robin earlier. Nothing explained how uneasiness settled in his stomach like a hard rock while he was looking at him.

The figure seemed… ethereal, and ghostly in a way that made his skin crawl. And what was stranger was that Robin swore he'd seen this person somewhere. Maybe in one of the thousands of articles he'd stashed in his archives back at the Tower, amongst one of the millions of headlines detailing city attacks, villains, and up and coming superheroes. More questions cropped up in his head as he saw Slade bring the bo staff down on the intruder's head, only for it to pass _through _the other.

"Hey, you were actually pretty close to hitting me that time!" He smirked, and the snarky phrase echoed through the room unnaturally. A white boot hit Slade square in the chest, sending him flying back. Without so much as a grunt, Slade centered himself soundlessly, landing on his feet.

"How rude. Hasn't anyone ever told you to respect your elders?" Slade's voice was exactly the same as he remembered. Robin's fist involuntarily clenched.

"Doesn't mean I listened to them." Was the reply, before they engaged right back into battle.

Robin finally gained his bearings, analyzing enough of his surroundings to formulate a plan of action. Disregarding what had happened before he woke up, what was important was what happening now. Hand searching for his utility belt, his face darkened as he gripped empty air. Improvisation it was, then.

Robin's hesitation cost him precious time, however, and the other teen's eyes finally found Robin. What looked like frustration traced his otherworldly features before his lips quirked up into a cocky grin.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty."

Slade caught on quick, lowering his weapon as he turned his attention to the elephant in the room. The villain said nothing, yet by the way his eye narrowed the threat he made was clear. Soon they were all staring at each other, waiting for anyone to make the first move.

All Robin knew was that if the stranger was fighting against Slade, then he was an ally. Anger flooded his senses again, red filling his vision as he reached his boiling point. This was his chance.

With a roar, he charged at the armored madman, fist raised as he attempted to strike in the stomach. His temporary ally stood shocked before him, clearly not have been expecting Robin to go for Slade's throat. It didn't take long before he let out an exorbitant "yeah!" and charged in behind the leader. Robin still had to be cautious though. He didn't know who the hell this kid was or his motivations. For all he knew this kid could have been another one of Slade's little projects. A pang of pity arose in him at the thought. Robin would just have to have faith that he'd chosen between the lesser of two evils.

The ghost, as Robin had taken to calling him in his head, took a few more shots at the villain as Robin attempted to kick him, missing just barely as Slade stepped back and grabbed his leg. The vice grip didn't last long though, as the ghost prepared to attack from behind and Robin was thrown in his direction. He ended up just phasing through him, (a concept that made Robin's head spin) and Robin found himself sprawled on the ground while the ghost continued on the offensive. Slade fended him off as best as he could, landing a few hard hits in the small window the teen was corporeal for. Ghost boy couldn't hit anyone unless he turned tangible.

The boy wonder quickly filed the mental note away for later. His moment of analysis didn't last long. Robin's heart lurched in his chest as he caught a glimpse of the button extend from Slade's hand, using the extra seconds the jerk bought himself to flash it in Robin's direction.

"Don't let him press it!" He yelled, and he was fully aware that he wasn't supposed to be speaking to the enemy but dammit he didn't care. "He'll kill them!"

Robin's voice shook slightly as Slade sent him a death glare that signified uncontainable anger. The ghost sent him a look of confusion before he spotted the button, a gloved thumb right above the trigger.

"On it!" A blast of weird energy hit Slade's elbow as the man tried to jerk back too late.

Robin used the distraction to flip up to the rickety platforms, trying to lure Slade up onto higher and less stable ground. It seemed to have caught Slade's attention perfectly, his copper mask flashing in the low lighting as he followed Robin's stunt. His eyes darted everywhere as he searched for anything that could pass as a weapon. Trying to find the belt at this stage was a lost cause, probably already neatly put away in the armory.

With a series of thuds and yells reverberating through the metal, he could tell the fight he left was following close behind. Desperately reaching for the first thing he saw, Robin closed his fist around a rusted lever and slammed his foot down on it before it broke off in his hands. The hero tried not to be too disappointed with his find. He's fought with worse before.

Just in the nick of time too, because the party finally reached him. Whipping around so his back faced the machinery he just desecrated, Robin came face to face with his worst fear.

"This will end here." Robin said, words forced through his teeth. He didn't even need to think about that line, instead opting to hold his makeshift staff in front of him and focusing on calming his breathing. Fear, rage, and adrenaline filled him with a dangerous sense of recklessness and if he focused on it for too long the nausea from before came back tenfold. The ghost joined his side, striking a fighting stance as he levitated behind the boy wonder, no smart joke in tow.

The air around him was freezing, and Robin thought he could feel himself shivering pathetically. Gears clanked overhead as Slade readied himself, uttering a calculated reply.

"You'll wish it had ended here."

The movement Slade made was too quick to process, but before he knew it the ghost screamed in pain, doubling over as he dropped to the ground like a rag doll. Their head hit the back of Robin's ankle as they writhed in pain, mouth gaping open like a fish without air. He shouldn't have looked backwards to check on him, because Slade took the moment of temporary weakness to slam into Robin. The gear he landed on gave off an ear splitting screech as the metal on Robin's uniform scraped against it. He gasped for air as his chest seized, whether from the harsh impact or his wild emotions, he didn't know.

The smoke in the area barely let him see the outline of Slade before he brought down his fist, aiming for the boy's skull. He barely dodged it, not before the iron of the gear cracked under the strength of the mercenary's fist. Robin's staff swiped at steel boots as he rolled over to a standing position, before a real polished one blocked the swing midway and pushed back. The clanging of the staffs as they slammed into each other mirrored the rhythmic grinding of the outdated technology above their heads and below their feet. Smoke obscured their vision constantly, but Slade always knew when to hit, taking advantage of Robin's blind spots to land a few cheap shots to his body and face, bruising the flesh beneath the uniform. But Robin wasn't wildly flailing around with his weapon, and before he knew it he had made a solid hit with the dark side of Slade's mask. The satisfying whack of the metal on metal had a grin breaking out on Robin's face as he settled into the mindset he always had when up against his ultimate enemy. Some sick sense of satisfaction grabbed him.

"Finally, you've returned to your senses." Slade murmured, his words still crystal clear in the earpiece Robin almost forgot existed. "I was worried that you wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight. I hope you'll enjoy being able to fight back. As soon as we get this… _situation_ figured out, our discussion afterwards will not be as pleasant as our spars." Typical for Slade to compare a fight so intense it had Robin sweating bullets to something as childish as a spar. He didn't stop or hesitant as he swung the lever again. It missed

"I almost didn't realize something was inside you. Had I not decided to catch "you" off guard for a fight, I wouldn't have been able to remove the entity borrowing your body. How fortunate."

"I'd ask you to fill me in on what happened while I was out, but I'm sure there'll be time to explain everything behind bars." Robin said, and with a smug hmm from Slade the fight started once again. It almost felt like dancing, or even like a performance. Dodge this attack, flip back to gain some distance as Slade closed in for another punch, then attempt to score a hit, then rinse and repeat. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew that Slade was holding back. Robin had witnessed, lived through, what Slade's full fury had been. And while their standard fight was challenging, no questions there, it wasn't what he was hoping for. He didn't have time to reflect how messed up the desire was to fight Slade was, or how he wanted the thrill that hummed underneath the surface of his scrambled emotions, before he heard a slight woosh behind his head. Slade's staff clashed with Robin's armor right as a fist materialized in front of the masked face and hit Slade head on.

"Are you badly hurt?" Robin exclaimed, slightly out of breath, the concern he felt earlier returning full force as he saw the ghost wincing with the force of the attack. The boy simply flashed him a pained smile, a cocky expression trying to distract Robin from the green liquid dripping from a gash in his forehead.

"It's gonna take a lot more than whatever that was to kill me again." He replied, and before Robin could ask him what he meant by that the kid swooped back in for another hit. Ghost kid rained a barrage of shots down onto the villain, and it gave Robin the opening he needed to give a hard kick to the mask.

There was a loud crack as Slade was knocked down, small splinters of the shattered material flying out in all directions. The kick must have really hit hard, because it had sent Slade stumbling off the railing, almost embarrassingly, sending him down to the floor below.

Robin couldn't help the rush of exhilaration at the thought that he had done that. He'd broken Slade's damn mask. And for the few seconds of deafening silence that the villain was prone for, he replayed the moment in his head.

But then he felt himself shiver as something incredibly cold grabbed his shoulders, and before he could turn around and deal with whatever new problem was behind him he felt something pass through him, from his legs to his head. It was only after looking up did he realize that the thing that passed through him was the platform he was just standing on, and now he was being lowered down gently onto the ground. Robin had to do everything in his power to not stand there frozen in shock.

The hands, definitely the other teen's, withdrew almost immediately as he floated over to Slade, ready to engage in battle again. Slade himself had gotten up fast, and to Robin's chagrin still had his mask fully intact. There was just a sizable crack running through the eyehole on the copper side, and nothing that could be gleaned of his face was visible.

"You've only made the consequences _much _worse for yourself, young man." Slade said, tone dangerously low, putting his staff away back in his belt.

"Really?" Shot back the ghost, despite not being the one Slade was addressing. He crossed his arms. "Because so far it looks like the fight's only been going bad for you."

"Then why haven't you been able to incapacitate me yet? Surely it wouldn't have been a challenge for such an _experienced_ fighter such as yourself." It was not a good sign if Slade was busting out sarcasm. Stepping back, Robin tried to shift himself into a better position. The other hero didn't seem to have the same idea, instead landing on the ground to take a few tentative steps forward.

"Maybe I've just been going easy on you. You looked like you needed it." Another mental note; ghost kid could die twice, and apparently wanted to. A growl escaped Slade, simmering frustration emanating off him in waves.

Robin had to cut in. "Step back." He motioned behind where the phantom stood, hoping he'd get the hint, but the boy only gave him an annoyed glare before turning back to Slade.

"I do so tire of playing games. And I'm sure you have better things to do then playing pretend superhero." The villain announced, and Robin was now keenly aware that Slade was reaching into his belt. "I think I'll just save time and skip to the end."

"We're not going to play along." Robin interrupted, trying to grab onto the kids arm to pull him back only to find that his hand passed right through him as well. He recoiled, feeling like he'd just plunged it into arctic water. A sigh of exasperation escaped Robin as the ghost mindlessly swatted away his hand and he readied his weapon for the tenth time that night.

"Wait a second, pretend superhero? Are you seriousl-" Robin charged before Slade could attack but it was too little, too late. He could see it clearly this time, how Slade took out something out of his pocket and sprayed it towards the phantom. Immediately they doubled over again and coughed violently, and then he let out a blood curdling scream that had Robin's ears ringing. Caught off guard, it was easy for Slade to grab his arm and twist it behind his back, using one foot to push Robin to the floor. Forehead pressed against the floor, he saw his unlikely ally crumple to the floor, head knocking against the concrete.

"I have to say this fight was rather anticlimactic. But the outcome is exactly how I expected."

"F-fuck you."

"Language, apprentice. I don't tolerate that disrespect here. And now, let's talk about your little friend."

Robin genuinely felt himself tear up. He had gotten help. He had a chance, and now it was gone, never to return, slipped through his fingers like water. And now there would be hell to pay. The boy tilted his head down, letting his slightly overgrown hair cover his eyes.

He had lost again.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Haha cliffhanger. Will you forgive me if I tell you the next chapter's soon? Wanted to write emotional dialogue, but as you can see I'm still getting the hang of it. I am currently searching for a beta reader to help me spell check and edit this story. I'll be poking around in a few places, but if you're interested, feel free to contact me. Anyways, enjoy today's installment!**

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Raven frowned, fingers brushing against her forehead as she pushed some loose strands of hair back behind her ear. The empath was currently leaning over the main console in the living room, a black and yellow map of the city displayed on screen. It was supposed to currently be showing the team where Phantom was located, but so far the icon indicating where he was was stuck two blocks down from the crime scene, right in front of the city bank.

"Maybe Phantom ran into somebody on the way there." Cyborg said, nonchalantly leaning onto the space next to her. Raven could still sense the vivid sensation of worry from her team member behind his facade anyways. "A lot happens in this city. Always possible he got sidetracked." He didn't seem too comfortable in the theory himself.

"But why would that happen?" Starfire chimed in, and Raven knew that she had left her spot on the couch to join them by the way Raven's heart filled with Starfire's endless compassion and concern.

"I do not believe that Slade…" Her voice trembled on the name of the villain. "Would have allowed Robin to stay out more than necessary. We have never been able to find him after our encounters." A fact Raven knew too well.

"Doesn't change the fact we haven't gotten the distress signal yet. We can only assume that something is wrong with the signal transmission, so we won't know his current location for sure until he activates it. If we don't receive it in the next 15 minutes we'll have to go to Plan B." Raven said, bringing up several locations across the screen as she typed.

"Doesn't change the fact that Plan B sucks," Piped up Beast Boy, followed by the distant sound of the refrigerator closing. "What, we get to the place where Phantom saw Robin running to the labs and then magically find Slade's top secret evil lair? Knowing our luck, Phantom probably only saw Robin after he was hours away from their hideout."

"Any better ideas?" There was a pause as Beast Boy made his way to join the rest in dully watching the unchanging screen, soda in hand. His shoulders were hunched in tired sadness.

"Nah." More silence filled the room.

"Well, we might as well be productive while we're all here." Raven finally added, and a full color photograph popped up in front of them. Robin's first sighting for the night, taken with the communicator the team had put on loan for their temporary teammate. It was blurry, obviously taken in the heat of the moment as Phantom began the chase after their leader. Raven's frown grew. Former leader. "See anything of use?"

It was a stupid question to ask. The only thing important was the backside of Robin, metal plating reflecting the dim street lights and outlining him in the dark of the night. None of the surrounding buildings even slightly visible in the photo were helpful. An ice cream parlor, hole in the wall restaurant, apartment complexes as far as the eye can see.

"Is there, perhaps, the video?" Starfire asked, green eyes transfixed on the screen as she swept across every square inch of it, before melancholically gazing at the image of Robin in the middle of the frame.

"None. Phantom only got this."

"Hard to tell which direction he's coming from too," Added Cyborg, deep in thought as he scanned the screen top to bottom. "Though if I had to bet, I'd say from the alley below him." Raven nodded her head in agreement.

"Ya know, dude really didn't give us any details when he said he found Robin. Just took the picture and ran. I mean, taking a video shouldn't be that hard." BB said, taking a swig from his can while he analyzed the picture himself. "Besides, if he was following Robin around, why couldn't he have done the whole ghost possession thing earlier?"

"Robin had to be stationary. Or at least that's what I've been told. It's difficult to properly possess a body that's constantly on the move." Raven answered, pulling information from the books and conversations she had studied beforehand concerning paranormal activity. "That's why you had to hold him down. Forgot?"

Beast Boy resumed looking at the photo with a disgruntled 'kinda'.

"Well, now that we're on the topic, can we all agree that that whole "overshadowing" business is creepy as hell?" Cyborg cut in, simultaneously taking control of the keyboard and running several filters over the image. "Like, I knew that who I was looking at was Robin. But then he moved wrong, so not like Robin. It was a whole different level of uncanny valley."

"Same feeling, bro. It just gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about it. He could take over anytime and we would have no idea." Beast Boy crossed his arms. "Don't get me wrong, Phantom's cool and all, but also super creepy. I had to spend half a week having an existential crisis about ghosts existing."

"Exactly! Let's be honest, it's why I've been keeping an eye on him since we brought him on board. I don't feel comfortable trusting him with a lot yet." Raven put a hand to her face in quiet frustration. God, she did not feel like getting into this topic right now.

"I do not see what the issue is." Starfire tore herself away from the screen, turning to the others. "He is helping us! Without him we would not have been able to defeat the monsters that had appeared last week. Nor would we be able to track Slade. I still do not fully understand what a 'ghost' is, but it should not matter!"

Cyborg let out a sigh. "That's kinda what's suspicious, Star. Think about it. A bunch of so called 'ghosts' show up in town and wreak havoc, and we can't even hit one of them. Then out of the blue this kid comes in and deals with them effortlessly. We've never seen him before, no one recognizes him, and he happens to show up along with a new wave of baddies that only he knows how to stop."

Starfire made as if to say something more before Cyborg put up his palm and she fell silent.

"Yeah, I know. We've had this conversation before. Give Phantom the chance to prove himself and all that. But he's dangerous. You've seen what he can do. He could be behind us right now and we would be none the wiser. The kid's friendly, he really is. But you don't know what Phantom's thinking, what he wants out of all this. I'd like to believe he went along with our crazy plan out of the goodness of his heart, but I guess I'm too much of a cynic."

Here Cyborg tapped on a key, closing the image as he brought up the coordinates of the tracker once more. His eyebrows scrunched up, clearly conflicted on what he should say next. Eventually he decided on what he should say, and the words shook almost unnoticeably as they left his throat.

"I don't want the same thing that happened to Robin to happen again."

A thick blanket of uncomfortable silence settled over the room as Starfire winced as though someone had physically burned her.

"Robin is the trustworthy. I-I know that he has been untruthful in the past, but he would never have betrayed us for selfish reasons." Her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears. Cyborg didn't answer, instead plucking the soda out of Beast Boy's hand to take a sip.

"Okay, even if Robin really isn't evil, Cyborg has a point about Phantom." Said Beast Boy, uncharacteristically choosing not to protest over the theft of his beverage. "If he does turn out to be plotting some mastermind evil plan then we literally won't see him coming."

"I think we should drop the topic. Shouldn't have brought it up anyways, seeing as we are in the middle of the mission."

Soon the only thing in the room was the sound of beeps and clacking buttons. The coordinates weren't of any help, a scattering of constellations across the sprawling urban city. As loathe as Raven was to admit it, Beast Boy was right. If they couldn't find Slade's hideout before this, then relying on random luck again wouldn't get them far. The atmosphere practically had a chokehold over each and every one of them, tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

Raven considered their options. The tracker was either busted or dropped, and if that wasn't the case then Phantom might be in serious trouble. Leaving would mean that they could begin the search without the go ahead, but it would be unlikely to lead to anything. Staying would mean possibly abandoning their new recruit, but they would be able to intercept the distress call when Phantom finally activated it. If they split up they could cover more ground, but the team had to be together to take on Slade, and every second spent trying to regroup could leave Phantom in a dangerous position. Raven was about to suggest that they should leave before she was interrupted.

"Robin's mistake was that he did not trust us." All the heads in the room turned towards Starfire, each with an expression of grim melancholy.

"We did not see anything wrong because he would not let us see anything at all. Maybe if he had told us about the secret research, or the Red X, or anything of the nature, we could have stopped this before Slade had gotten to him.

"Now I cannot stop thinking what would have happened if only one of us had gone to fight Cinder Block with him. But he did not think we could take it, and we did not bother to _try_ and help." Her next words were raw, a damning accusation.

"We were horrible friends." Raven couldn't look at her, the raw heartbreak of Starfire hitting her in waves as she drew her cloak back up over her head and obscuring her face in shadow. Beast Boy looked incredibly uncomfortable, taking the form of an armadillo as he made himself smaller to avoid being seen. Cyborg looked down at the floor, at a loss for words. Eventually he scrounged up the stability to look her back in the eyes.

"We can't play the blame game here, Starfire. Nothing changes if we do. Robin is still a criminal, willingly or otherwise. Whether or not we had anything to do with it doesn't matter now."

"I would not dare to play any games at such a serious time! If it wasn't for us Robin would not have been turned against our team. And now we cannot make the same mistakes. You say you do not wish for the same thing to happen, and yet you are not trusting our one chance at fixing it."

Cyborg's shoulders slumped.

"Maybe you're right, Star. Maybe I should be more optimistic. But there are so many things that could go wrong here, and if it does, I'm not one hundred percent confident we can handle it."

Time went agonizingly slow before Starfire got out her communicator, syncing the various coordinates to her GPS system.

"I am going to go find them. I shall contact you if I see anything." Raven's mouth settled into a hard frown of contemplation before she made a snap decision and pulled out her communicator as well.

"I'm going with you as well." Starfire gave her a small smile, muted and quiet, but genuine. Raven turned to address the remaining members.

"Call us if you receive the signal. You know what to do from here." Cyborg nodded back, lost in his own thoughts as Beast Boy awkwardly waved them goodbye.

"Good luck, dudes."

"Thanks, Beast Boy." And with that the pair made their way out of the building towards the night sky.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Got a little bit more graphic with this chapter, plus wrote for longer. Not too confident with it, since it's more of a transition chapter, but I think it has some nice moments. Going to take some time off to fully figure out what happens from here. Hope you enjoy today's installment!**

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Robin was bleeding. Wet patches of red bloomed underneath his costume as he was held down and punched, hard, directly in the chest. Slade must've reopened an old scar. His hands were held directly above him, twisted harshly as Robin was forced to his feet. Metal sounded against the floor as something was kicked aside.

"Who were you working with."

"No one was involved, I never-" He winced as Slade stamped onto his foot and a bright pain flashed through his leg.

"My patience is wearing rather thin, Richard, and I recommend you cooperate." A chill went through him at the use of his first name, but Robin steeled himself and stared Slade straight in the eye, trying to keep his nerves under control as best as possible. "If you insist that you were not operating with this intruder, despite you willingly siding with him, then I will give you one chance to explain yourself."

Robin raced to piece together his story, not giving himself enough time to think through what he should or shouldn't say.

"All I remember is the laboratory." Robin had to slightly cough out the words, out of breath and in pain. "I was trapped, and I lost consciousness. Then I woke up here." Slade narrowed his eye.

"I don't know this person. Never seen them before." He added, the grip on his hands tightening dangerously.

"He was in your mind, apprentice. Why didn't you attempt to shut him out? Were you communicating during your possession?"

"N-Nothing! Nothing was happening!" Robin braced himself for another hit, before Slade tossed him onto the floor and Robin let out a small grunt as he hit pavement. Slade let him go? Wouldn't he be worried that Robin would start attacking again?

Robin's questions were answered when Slade backed away from him, turning to walk up to a limp body being handled by a Sladebot, head lolled to the side. Dark hair obscured their face, matted together with wet blood that dripped onto the floor beneath

them.

"Trying to kill a ghost is a useless endeavor," He began, picking up the forgotten lever that had been carelessly strewn to the side. The hero's eyes narrowed at the change in topic. Slade's gloved hands traced the tip, where shards of sharp rusted iron poked out from where Robin had broken it off the machine. Robin scowled at the fact that he could have possibly stabbed Slade when he had it, before his brain lurched at the thought and he watched in horror as the unconscious boy's head was tilted up and the sharp end was put against his throat. "Whereas humans are an entirely different matter."

The blood that was previously running off the kid's face was now pooling underneath his right eye and dripping onto his chin, originating from a sizable open wound on the forehead.

His mouth dropped open as it suddenly dawned on Robin that this was ghost kid. But now he was stripped of his ethereal glow, and as evidenced by the scratches and cuts everywhere, completely mortal.

"This boy could be useful. I'd hate to dispose of him for childish reasons." The bar was removed, and Robin let out a sigh of relief he didn't even know he was holding. The message was delivered loud and clear: attempt to fight back and the boy would suffer. Slade held the kid's head back by his hair now, studying the features.

"Daniel Fenton. The son of a family of researchers I've been looking into ever since their move to Jump." Of course Slade knew what, who, this person was. Infuriated couldn't even begin to describe what Robin was feeling, and it took everything for him not to yell at Slade to get his filthy hands off of the ghost. Secret identities were sacred, but the villain ran around picking at masks like old scabs until their life threatening secrets came apart in his hands. And it only made his blood boil more when he squared it with the fact that the bastard had unmasked an amateur, a kid with no safety nets. Slade released Daniel, allowing his head to hang over the metal arm of the robot again. "To be more specific, a family specializing in the research and extermination of ghosts."

His eyes widened under his mask, but his disbelief was short-lived. Robin lived (used to live) with a whole group of bizarre people. Ghosts weren't anything out of the ordinary, and Slade only confirmed what he'd suspected from the beginning. What worried him more was the fact that Slade had listed extermination as one of the specialties of Daniel's family. Was Daniel safe at his home?

Though the real question was why Slade was researching the paranormal in the first place. Robin doubted that he had just gained a new found appreciation for horror movies. The villain must've read his mind, because he answered the unspoken question.

"I doubt you were aware, but during your little absence a barrage of ghosts descended upon the city. Of course, your former team failed to defend the city they claim to love so much. Until a certain someone managed to take them all down in one go." His gaze fell to Daniel. "I knew I had to have something on me to… control the situation, should those same ghosts decide to give me problems. And lo and behold, they did. Thankfully, a colleague of mine was kind enough to offer me what I needed."

The boy wonder's eyes narrowed at the information, immediately trying to sort through all the news he'd received in the past month to see if he'd heard anything about ghosts haunting Jump, but it wasn't of any use. Robin had been isolated from the real world for way too long. News of what was happening in his city wasn't reaching his ears anymore, just what Slade wanted him to hear. And the asshole had been frustratingly tight lipped. Trying to find out who this "colleague" was would probably also be a dead end. Subsequently, he had no information on these 'ghost hunters' either. Though he doubted that they were of any real use, since apparently it was their son, one of the ghosts, that had stopped the attacks. So then what did Slade want with them?

His blood ran cold when he realized just how much power Slade had now over this kid. Robin's first guess was that he would be held for ransom, in exchange for… what? Tech? If Slade, of all people, was interested in this family, they likely wouldn't take it sitting down. Maybe he would dangle the superhero's identity over Daniel, force him to hand over anything he would need for his evil schemes, maybe even—

It wouldn't come to that. Slade better be expecting a hell of a fight from Robin if he even tried getting out a uniform for Daniel.

He was broken out of his thoughts soon enough. Something small and yellow clattered onto the ground in front of the boy wonder. The black and orange copper mask was now in front of his face, the solitary eye inhabiting the socket gleaming with an unseen grin. Robin, taking the silence as approval to investigate, slowly leaned down and ran his fingers over the device. Spotting the design on the front of it, his face went pale as the implications became clear.

It was a Titans communicator. And judging by the circumstances, Daniel's communicator.

"Quite the social butterfly, aren't you." A hand grabbed Robin by his throat, and his feet left the ground once again. He flailed in Slade's grip, struggling for air.

"I di-didn't k-know the Titans were i-involved in this! I've—"

"Seen enough." Robin coughed, the edge of his vision blurring dangerously. "You have allowed yourself to be compromised by them! Allowed a Titan to infiltrate our base and possibly expose beyond valuable information. Not to mention that you _chose_ to ally yourself with him against me. You should know better than anyone, apprentice, that now that he has witnessed this he is too much of a liability to set free." Robin was released, knees painfully hitting the floor again as he took deep gulps, rubbing the area around his throat where he was held in a superhuman vice grip. "It strikes me that your former friends are too stupid to know when to quit. If they will not back off then I will _force _them to."

The trigger was pulled out, rough gloves forcing Robin's head up to stare at black leather brushing against the surface of the button.

"Do you know how it feels like to be physically torn apart from the inside out? Every cell being meticulously torn apart until there is nothing left but a husk of a person. But I don't have to resort to that to kill them. I can do it slow and steady, activate short bursts where their bodies are eaten away in the most brutal, painful fashion. How long do you think they could withstand before your team makes the decision to end their wretched suffering themselves?" Robin groaned, trying his best to ignore the visual images popping up in his mind, nightmares that would haunt him in his sleep.

"Maybe your team would be too cowardly to go through with it. Maybe I'll incapacitate them in the middle of a fight and let their enemies tear them to shreds."

"You wouldn't let that happen, _master_. You'd lose your leash on me." He growled, tone colored with anger as he counted to ten in his head, resisting the urge to launch himself at the man and clock him out.

"Would I? Because I don't think you're in the position to call my bluff." The gloved hand left his face, and Robin leaned back to put as much distance as he could manage between them. "How _insolent._"

The screens in the lair flickered, switching to the nauseating image that gave Robin constant nightmares. The blood streams of his friends, their vitals, their heartbeat, everything. And of course, the nanobots. But something new popped up alongside the monitors; on an adjacent panel was a video feed of the living room of Titan's Tower. Cyborg and Beast Boy were leaning onto the monitors, watching live video of the city as they scoured through endless footage, looking for something. Robin's heart stopped in its place, and he couldn't pinpoint whether what he was feeling was anger or pure unbridled fear.

"I'll make you watch them suffer."

"Leave him… leave him alone."

Both heads turned to see Daniel, now lifting himself up with his arm on the steel limb holding his body. "Stay away or I'll… "

Slade marched over to him and Daniel physically winced, but then stared him straight in the face. Robin was immediately struck by Daniel's eye color. Sparkling blue was framed by black messy hair, and it felt like looking into a twisted mirror. A single thought wormed its way into his brain that shoved its way to the forefront before he could squash it.

_They've already replaced you. _

"Daniel Fenton. How nice of you to join us." The boy went as white as a sheet at the mention of his name, his arm almost giving out under him.

"How did you-"

"A magician never reveals his secrets." Daniel paused and glanced down at himself, taking in his appearance as best as he could. A morbidly funny thought passed through Robin's head. He looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Jazz is going to _kill me_," He whispered, now visibly shaking. Daniel didn't look like he meant to say that, and it hit Robin just how downright terrified this kid must be, in the clutches of a maniac who held every aspect of your life in their palm. Robin was already convinced that Slade was a piece of shit, but if he wasn't before then that would have sealed it. Daniel had now composed himself, taking shaky breaths as he tried threats. "You'll regret this. Let me go or-"

"Or what? By all means, I invite you to try escaping." Daniel did just that, weakly scraping his fingernails on the metal trapping him as he tried to twist himself free. Robin caught him furrowing his brow as he concentrated on something, and Robin surmised that he was trying to activate his powers. But then Robin's eyes fell on the collar now nestled on Daniel's neck, a new addition that hadn't been noticed before.

An inhibitor collar.

Slade laughed, a low chilling tone that somehow managed to fill the room, overpowering the groans of machinery and the sound of Daniel's struggling.

"Now that we've evened out the playing field, let's discuss what happens next."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Okay maybe I took this chapter a bit too seriously but at least I figured out where the heck to put certain events in the storyline. Just bear with me here, folks. If you feel like I'm getting too graphic or intense, let me know, but as is I think I might keep the tone this way. As always, any critique is welcome and I hope you enjoy today's installment!**

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Danny knew that this entire mission had spiraled out of control in the most disastrous way, but part of him wasn't accepting the fact that this was happening. He was afraid, scared shitless, plain and simple. All he could do was stare at the man in front of him as he uselessly dangled from the grip of the robot carrying him. Disregarding the fact that casually having a robot clone of yourself was incredibly creepy, Danny was slightly fascinated by it, hearing the hums and whirs of the mechanisms laying just behind the chest he was being held against. It helped him focus on anything else other than the death trap he'd gotten himself trapped in.

"Richard." Danny stopped fighting, opting to instead focus his attention on the only other person Slade could have been addressing. Robin was crouched down in the corner of the room, slightly farther away from the screens. He was staring at Slade, and if looks could kill Danny would already be six feet under. But under it all he looked defeated, like he'd had the wind knocked out of him and he never recovered.

That didn't stop Danny from letting out an incredulous chuckle, more out of shock than anything, because Robin Boy Wonder had a name like Richard. It seemed way too normal for him to have, and Danny felt wrong for even hearing it, like he'd just passed some boundary he didn't even know was there. Maybe it was fair, since Robin now also knew not only his first name but his _full _name, but didn't sit right with Danny. It felt weird to think this, but it made Robin seem human, and while it wasn't that he particularly doubted that beforehand, Danny couldn't really bring himself to think of the boy wonder that way. And yeah, he knew the irony of that statement.

"I'll give you the opportunity to choose. Who's going to be feeling the consequences of your actions?" Slade asked, and Danny pushed aside mulling on those thoughts for later as Robin's (or Richard's) eyes flickered from Danny to the screens casting a red glow over the whole scene. Danny followed his gaze, and he had to take a couple of quick breaths when he was met with images of blood streams, red blood cells swirling through the veins. Gah, he just hated medical stuff like that. It made him incredibly uncomfortable. What was it for?

"Nothing was his fault," Danny muttered, guilt seizing his chest and squeezing, "I did it on my own." He was ignored by Slade, and Robin shot him a look that read clearly as 'stay out of this'.

"I'm sorry, master." There was a twinge of desperation in Robin's voice, and Danny hoped Desiree was around just this once because he really wished he could just disappear right now. Robin sounded too vulnerable, and it made his skin crawl with disgust at the way he was begging. Yeah, no question about it, this 'relationship' the two of them had was messed up as all hell. Slade has soundly landed himself in the fruitloop club. "_I_ failed the mission, hurt me instead. No one has to pay for my mistakes."

At that Robin closed his eyes and let his head droop to the floor, and Danny realized just how embarrassing this was for the boy wonder to have to plead like this. Danny shouldn't have interfered, damn it, he'd made everything worse by trying. Now he was here under an old factory in the middle of god knows where with the Titans seemingly MIA, probably about to die a horrible second death.

Danny stopped paying attention to anything that was happening, fueled both by straight up denial and by the fact that his head really hurt. Splotchy patches of red and green were all over his arm, and something wet was all over his face. Great, he'd gotten a nasty cut. It was hard to pay attention to anything happening around him, his head pounding with pain. Thankfully, whatever was holding his powers back didn't seem to affect his regeneration powers; Danny could already feel the skin start slowly patching itself up, soothing the ache under his hair.

Then he noticed the other video feed, layered over the vitals displayed on the panels to the right of him. It was… the Tower? The living room, to be specific. Cy and BB were fumbling over a communicator, dropping it as they urgently tried to tap something out on it. He checked the timestamp in the bottom right corner. This was in real time.

Why were they there? They were supposed to be here, doing the whole plan thing! Starfire and Raven weren't there, so he could only assume they were on their way; so why weren't they?

Something must have gone wrong with the signal. As if enough hadn't gone wrong. Okay Fenton, think. Maybe you didn't press the tracker's button right. The GPS in the communicator broke. You didn't leave a clear enough trail. Or maybe… His thoughts went to the button he'd seen the maniac holding in his grip, how the boy wonder practically broke down when he saw it. Robin had yelled something about Slade killing "them". Danny had a sinking suspicion that he knew exactly who "they" were. But no, they were alive. Cy and BB were still on screen, healthy as ever.

Something had just gone wrong, and now he just had to fix it. Was the tracker still on Robin? He was one hundred percent sure that Robin would cooperate if he could just get the message across that it was there. Easier said than done.

Danny turned his head to face Robin's, who was still talking to Slade. A new red mark decorated his cheek, and it looked like he'd stopped begging for Slade to spare his friends. Danny's stomach lurched at the sight, but started waving his arm anyways, behind the villain's back as he tried to get his attention. The only sign that he'd been noticed was Robin slightly furrowing his brows, a detail went unnoticed by Slade.

"Have you made your decision? Young Daniel, or your worthless excuse for a team."

That didn't sound good. Sweat beaded on the back of his neck. He didn't know he was part of the choices. So this is how sleep paralysis felt like, Danny thought. Helpless and paralyzed while some demon is slowly creeping towards you, with you having no idea what they're planning for you.

Robin looked like he'd been punched in the gut. Danny started mouthing _there's a tracker on you, a tracker, press it, _but Robin wasn't meeting his gaze, head in his hand.

"10… 9… 8… 7.. "

"Daniel."

Danny thought he physically felt his core shatter from fear. "Ah hah, don't I get a say in-" A harsh hand over his mouth shut him up, the bot adjusting to keep him still and silent.

"Smart choice." The screens stilled, and shut off. Robin finally stood up, unsteady on wobbly knees, and he took one moment to send an expression of unwavering guilt towards Danny that only skyrocketed his anxiety.

Slade turned away from the two of them, heading towards the table still set up near the twisted metal throne. Robin edged closer, and a small shock of joy went through Danny when he mouthed the words _tracker, where?_

He had seen him.

_Under the collar, left side. _Robin frowned, and Danny felt his heart sink to the bottom of the ocean.

_Signal jammer in suit. _But his hands did go up to his collar, fingers running over his collarbone as he tried to find the affixed tracker. Robin mouthed one last thing to Danny before the sound of footsteps signified the villains presence.

_I'm sorry. _

Slade returned, and in his hand was an ordinary medical syringe. The bot adjusted Danny again, hooking its arms under his armpits to suspend him in the air, exposing his chest. Both of the heroes looked at Slade in confusion, but his clarification didn't do anything to help them.

"In this syringe is a more developed model of the nanobots used to infect your former team members." He glanced at Robin, almost like he was sharing an inside joke. "They can be activated separately in different areas of the body, induce pain without death, and almost impossible to detect without the right equipment. Of course, I had to make some sacrifices. They can only be injected directly into the bloodstream."

Time stopped as Danny choked on his own breath and all the color faded from his vision. Nanobots, that's what the villain had been threatening Robin with. And now, was threatening Danny with. Slade turned that one, unmerciful eye on him.

"Despite your… physiology, I think you would be a great test subject."

"Master, I-I, no!" Robin was clenching his fingers together so hard he was shaking. "He's defenseless! You can't-"

"We cannot afford to be honorable, Richard. Daniel should consider himself lucky that he is useful enough to keep alive. Or at least as alive as he can be."

"You're crazy!" Danny yelled, finally checking back into reality. "Absolutely insane! No wonder you had to threaten someone into sticking around with you, you absolute fruitlo-"

He winced as pain ran through his cheeks, stinging as the glove that had slapped him pulled away.

"You may be useful alive, but that doesn't mean that that fact can't change. I'm sure your parents would still want your body back in one piece. Or maybe you freaks of nature don't leave behind corpses?"

Danny glared at his sneakers, face flushing with anger along with physical and mental hurt. He wasn't prepared for this! Abject horror was the only thing he could feel. "You'll, you won't get away with this."

"Cute. Let's not stall any longer." The needle flashed for a second before the sheen of it faded back into the dim light, and now it was approaching the skin of his neck.

Danny kicked, flailing as the needle was pulled back to avoid stabbing him. He felt his shoes connect with the chest plate of the armor, but it was absolutely useless in getting the nut job off of him. Something grabbed his head, roughly adjusting it to be as still as possible, while one of the metal arms holding him up now grasped him across the chest, pinning one of Danny's arm to his side. Danny tried to bang on the compartments of the robot keeping him still, but it was useless.

"It will be much more painful if you struggle." The baritone voice was right next to his ear, and he immediately wanted to spit in its direction, but he was still being held still. "I might hit the wrong vein, and that would be more of a problem for you than for me."

Danny immediately opened his mouth to spit an insult at Slade before he felt the tiniest prick on his neck. Almost instantly he stopped resisting, his limbs going still as the needle withdrew and Slade stepped back.

I should have written a will or something, Danny thought as the screen lit up again, one solitary panel labeled "Phantom" the only thing shown. Would have left all my science textbooks to Jazz. I have that broken gameboy that Tuck would have loved to try to get working again. I'm sure Sam would have appreciated that copy of that stupid unicorn movie Jazz gave me as a gag gift.

Danny didn't even react to the mental image of Sam, all black death and hard metal albums, scrunching her nose up as she held an overly bright disc case dumped with glitter. He was too terrified to do anything more than stare as Slade removed a multi button remote from god knows where.

"Richard." Robin was trembling, expression twisted with rage as he whipped his head up to meet Slade eye to eye, saying nothing but his threats clearly visible. Slade merely tsked, grabbing his apprentice's arm and nestling the remote in his palm, keeping his own fingers over the buttons. "You're not affiliated with him? Then prove it. Activate the probes yourself. Show me you know who you serve."

"Never."

"He isn't the only one who has to suffer tonight." Robin was torn between two choices, barely keeping the remote steady in his grip. Was it selfish of Danny to just want Robin to turn on the Titans instead? Probably, yeah. But when Robin stared him straight in the eyes as he pressed down on the center button, he wished it was someone, anyone, else.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Back with another late update y'all. Had fun writing this, since we're getting closer to an actual story. And thank you all for the great reviews! It makes me feel amazing that you all took the time out of your day to write something nice :) . Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy today's installment!**

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After everything that Danny had been through tonight, being deposited on the cold ground of a menacing underground lair was the best feeling in the world. He wobbled on his knees until he made to stand up; the metal hand of the robot behind him kept him pinned to the ground.

Everything felt fuzzy, every sensation muted as his regeneration powers kicked into overdrive, held back by both his human form and the collar that felt increasingly heavy on his shoulders.

Danny kinda registered crying, followed by the sound of something being hit. The thought didn't even occur to look up to see what was happening. Slade had been activating the probes several times, only giving Danny minutes to recover until they were activated again. Danny just wanted to shout at him to stop, but he couldn't move his mouth to say it.

Then the pain surged through him again. Everything in his body was on fire, randomly spiking in intensity until he crumpled from hurt and exhaustion.

One thought played through his head on repeat: He was dead, he was dying, this was it.

Suddenly it dissolved as fast as it had appeared, and Danny stayed down.

Then he was picked up by the scruff of his shirt and dragged along to some other dark hallways until he was dumped into some other room with menacing shadows. To be honest, he already lost track of which dark scary definitely somehow illegal room was which.

Danny wanted to sleep, but he didn't. Mostly because he knew that falling asleep in enemy territory would possibly be the second most stupid thing he could do tonight, and he really didn't want to be setting any new records for his own idiocy right now. And secondly because there was a pulsing hum of energy pushing up from his core keeping him just above the threshold of consciousness.

He only tried standing up again when the remaining hurt faded into soreness. Danny almost fell over a couple of times, but he finally boosted himself up and immediately leaned on the wall for support as he was hit with a wave of dizziness. Eventually it passed and the last dregs of pain disappeared as he finally stood all the way upright. Well, that's one thing accomplished.

Eyes blurring, he tried to get a handle on his situation. He was in some kind of training room, mats and a punching bag scattered around the place. Fluorescent lights lit up the room pretty well, but Danny's current state made him squint from the oversensation. Guess Slade preferred function over style, because aside from that the area was practically barren. In fact, there wasn't even a door.

Shit, there wasn't even a door. The grey concrete walls were all sealed, perfectly identical to each other with nothing distinguishing them. He tried to remember what direction he was tossed into the room to, but Danny was drawing a blank. It shouldn't even matter if there wasn't a door, because in any _other _situation that didn't involve a power suppressing collar locked onto his neck he would have just phased straight out of there. He'd figure this out though. It wasn't his first rodeo when it came to getting out of places inhabited by creepy old fruitloops equipped with ghost repellents.

The Plasmius Maxius had a time limit, too. Maybe this collar worked the same way? Danny tugged at it, frowning as he failed to get it to stop pressing on his throat. Slade definitely made this one himself, if the style of it was any indication. Robin was wearing something similar, but Danny doubted that his functioned the same way, especially since Robin was powerless.. Rivets lined the edge and stretched out onto his shoulders, snugly fitting around his neck. It was metallic, but felt oddly warm, especially pressed up against his normally cold skin. If he stopped moving around and focused on the feeling it almost felt like it was going to burn him.

One thing was for sure though; Danny wasn't going to be able to pry it off of himself with just his hands. He was going to need a little help. Nothing sharp or blunt was in the vicinity, so that checked off any possible tools to try and chip the thing off with. Just to be sure though, he checked all the corners meticulously, prying the mats off to try and find something that could be useful.

The most he turned up was a couple of metal shards, thin and scratched. A fraction of a gear, some piping, a chip of bronzed copper. And, strangely enough, a paperclip. Those things really are everywhere.

Maybe those other items weren't going to be useful, but the paper clip seemed pretty promising. Unfolding it, he inserted the thin edge into the tiny slot running along the back of his collar and started fidgeting around in there. Danny had no idea what he was even looking for; he wasn't an expert at lock picking at all and even if he was this probably wasn't even a lock. But it was something that he could do to at least seem productive.

After a while of trying and failing to get anywhere with the collar, he was honestly considering trying to ram himself against the wall to try and crack it. But then there was a low hiss from behind him.

Immediately dropping the paperclip, Danny scrambled to hide the evidence back under the black gym mats. Half of it still stuck out in the open but Danny had to get up before he was caught. He whirled around to face the noise, heart racing a million miles a minute as a panel revealed itself, sliding out of place to reveal…

Robin.

He was out of his uniform, now dressed in a plain white t-shirt with black cargo pants. That stylized 'S' from before was still printed onto the shirt, in the same place as last time. Danny was about to start bombarding the boy wonder with questions before Robin rushed into the room and the door fell into place behind him, like it was never there in the first place.

"Daniel."

"Danny." Robin nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We don't have a lot of time, Danny. I have a plan to get you out of here, but we have to be quick about it."

Robin's tone was dead serious, but it didn't stop Danny from asking, "I thought Slade was always keeping the one eye he has on you." Robin shook his head, motioning for Danny to kneel while he got out something and circled behind him.

"Slade has both a tracker and a body cam on my apprentice uniform. I'm allowed to change out of it during missions, and he doesn't have cameras set up down here, so he can't really surveil me when I'm here in the haunt. It doesn't matter though. I can't leave without his say so, and any room that's even slightly important is locked."

His face darkened. "And Slade doesn't think I'm stupid to even try going behind his back." Danny scratched his knee nervously.

"So, uh, you're saying this is a stupid plan, then."

"I'd call it reckless. Besides, it's the only one we have, and I'm not going to let you be held hostage here for the rest of your life."

"Wait, the rest of my life?" Robin stayed silent for a second, a strange look of pity crossing his face before he shook his head again and inserted something back into the slot of the collar, jiggling around in there.

"Think about it. You know about the probes, his secret lair location, he even used my _real name_ in front of you. He'd never let anyone with that kind of knowledge just leave." Noticing how tense Danny had gotten, Robin quickly added, "Slade's not going to kill you. He's already told me that your family had something valuable to him. You were probably going to be held as ransom; and after that, a threat to me. Extra insurance to keep me from punching a hole in his face. As if my friends weren't enough reason."

"My family has something he wants? What does this maniac want with _my family_? We're not rich, my parent's inventions are usually a flop, my sister's still in college and-" Danny remembered the ghost portal. It was being reconstructed right now, in the laboratory at the new house. Mom and Dad were buzzing about it for weeks, him getting pulled aside constantly for lectures about how the latest portal was going to be the most powerful thing he's ever laid eyes on. "Oh my god. He- He's not going to hurt them, right?"

"You're asking the wrong guy. All Slade's told me is that he was studying you for a while when you first moved here."

There was a particularly violent thrust as Robin tried to calm himself before he got too riled up. "He probably would have used you as a tool, too. Not as an 'apprentice'," His tone filled with barely concealed poison, "But as a disposable weapon. That's why we need to get you out of here." Danny turned pale, hands suddenly clammy as he thought about being forced to hurt people. Robin's answer only fueled him with more questions than answers, but he could only manage a nervous, quippy retort.

"Well, that sounds like something a sane, well adjusted person would do. Also, 'apprentice'? Why did he want you, specifically, as an apprentice anyways? Why not get a cat, or something."

"That's a discussion I'm going to personally talk about with him later." Robin's answer had the whole _end of discussion _vibe to it that Danny took as a sign to keep his mouth shut. Robin fiddled around some more, awkwardly jerking Danny's head as he worked.

"While I'm working on this, I need you to fill me in on some things. First of all, what are you? Slade called you a ghost, but you're breathing, you have blood cells, a working heart, all human stuff."

"I'm a halfa. Half human and half ghost hybrid." Robin shot him a weird look, studying Danny for a second as though trying to find something to disprove him before he shrugged.

"I never would have thought that existed. Are there a bunch of 'halfas' out there we just haven't heard about?"

"There's only two of us, so. The other guy's _not_ important so we're _not_ going to bring him up."

Robin got the hint. "So you're only half dead, then." Danny didn't get a chance to correct him, (or maybe not, because even he didn't really understand where he stood on the mortality scale after the whole portal incident,) before he swiftly moved on. "I'll have to research more into ghosts later, if and when this plan works out. All I need to know right now is how your possession works."

"Oh right, I'm sorry for taking over your body." Danny looked back at Robin, trying to look as apologetic as possible. "It's just, I brought it up with Raven and she thought-"

"That sounds like her." Robin smirked, barely quirking up the corners of his mouth. "It's fine, Danny. I'd probably do the same in your position." There was a loud screech that made Danny wince as he was jerked back, Robin trying to pry his tool out. "But I need to know, could you access my memories?"

Danny waved his hands frantically, "No, not at all. Whenever I overshadow someone, I'm only in control of the body. I haven't overshadowed anyone too often either, so even if I could I wouldn't know how."

"Good. Can you communicate with me mentally while you're possessing me?" Where did this question come from? It made Danny uneasy, somehow, and he started realizing that he just might know what kind of plan Robin had in mind.

"I uh, think I can if I don't push the other person out all the way. But if I do that, I risk getting pushed out myself. When I was you, I'm pretty sure a couple of your instincts and emotions carried over to me."

"Wait, you think you can? You don't know how your possession powers work." He cocked an eyebrow and shot Danny an incredulous look. "And you relied on it to get in here and save me."

Danny flushed from embarrassment. "I managed to fool him for a little bit! Besides the goal wasn't to save you, at least not by myself. And it worked fine until Slade decided to punch me." Robin gave a long exasperated sigh.

"That's not good, because my whole plan depended on that."

"What do you mean?" There was silence before there was a loud hiss and the collar slipped off his neck and crashed onto the bare part of the floor. Danny's hands immediately went to his neck as he relished the feeling of the tight inhibitor being off of him before he felt the familiar buzz of his ghost side fill his senses again. Robin straightened, waiting for Danny to get up too before he headed back for the door.

"You're going to have to 'overshadow' me again."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Would you look at that I'm not dead. Sorry for not posting in a while, especially sorry for coming back with a short chapter, but things are getting kind of tight with the whole pandemic going on. Hope you guys are looking out for yourselves and your hygiene. On a lighter note: geez is this story getting a lot of attention. Thank you all so much for continuing to read and support my work, even if it may seem choppy and bad at times. I'd like to respond to some reviews too, since I haven't don't that in a while. **

**YukinaBlueRose: Thanks to you for reading ;)**

**Chocogoat: Your encouragement is really great. Comments like yours keep me writing. **

**KorevainsoLightshire: Great question. I'm pretty much pretending season three never happened (since I haven't fully watched it (yes I'm a fake fan)), so I'm writing a very modified version of Danny. He has the normal ghost powers, he has cloning, and the jury's still out on ice powers. He probably won't have them though. **

**Leomonta: That's a high level of praise! Hope I can continue to live up to it. I really hope you stick around to see what's in store. **

**Thank you all again for the reviews, follows, and favorites, and enjoy today's update. **

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Danny stopped in his tracks, eyeing Robin like he'd just grown a second head.

"What? That plan is stupid, sorry, but it is. Slade literally just punched me out of your body. He's going to notice that one, I'm missing, and two, you're suddenly acting weird again. Then he'll put two and two together and kill us." Robin frowned, turning back towards Danny. He'd been expecting resistance from the teen, but right now he was not in the mood for this. Time was of the essence, and every second he spent trying to get Danny to go along with him was another second Slade could be spending returning from whatever mystery emergency he went to take care of. He just wished he had his team with him. They trusted him, or as much as they could before he had been stupid enough to don the guise of Red X. Danny continued. "I could just phase both of us out of here. I really don't think this lair is ectoplasm enforced."

"We can't. The second Slade realizes we've left the haunt, he'll activate the probes on you. And there's no guarantee he'll spare you after you managed to escape."

"What about you? You can run and tell-"

"Listen, only you're escaping, Danny. Not me. Slade might not have probes on me, but he has them on my friends. And unlike you, Slade doesn't have a reason to spare them. I can't leave until they've been deprobed." He'd fantasized about leaving too many times to count, but it always ended with the same nightmarish image of his friends dropping to the ground like flies, eyes glazed over and dead.

Danny looked off to the side, gaze falling to the floor. "But Slade will know that you've helped me. What's going to stop him from blowing me up or you or the Titans when he finds out-"

"I'll take care of that before you leave." Robin held up the tracker that was stuck onto his suit earlier. "This emits a constant signal, right?"

"Yeah. Apparently it's busted though. Cyborg said they should be able to make it anywhere in Jump in less than fifteen minutes, and they still aren't here."

"Of course they were coming." Robin ran his hand through his hair, cut short by Slade recently. Leave it to his friends to throw themselves into danger with half a plan put together. "There's a reason for that. Slade had a signal jammer built into my suit, pretty much nulls anything that could track me. Has something like that installed everywhere in the haunt, too. But he doesn't have it installed above ground. If you get far enough away from the factory, it should work normally. By then you'll be out of my body."

"Okay. But how do we get to that point?" Robin narrowed his eyes, running through the details in his head again.

"Here's the plan. You possess me. We navigate through the haunt the tech lab we have set up down here. Slade was caught pretty off guard by you, actually. He never expected someone to find us here, so he never installed any measures to prepare against people other than me. Which is why you're in the training room, and not in some kind of cell. That will make it much easier for us to escape. Our main objective is to find the machine that operates and sends kill signals to the probes in my friends." Getting the trigger itself was a lost cause. Robin learned this fact the hard way. Danny was looking at him warily, obviously doubting Robin's plan. To be honest, Robin had little faith in it too. "With the probes deactivated there's at least a chance they could take on Slade."

"Why couldn't you have done this earlier, if everything is so easy to access for you? You got here no problem. You're his right hand man, for crying out loud!"

"Don't call me that." He said without thinking. "I'm not working for him." Robin's hands clenched at his hair in barely restrained annoyance and contempt at the idea. "The door's always locked. Again, Slade still doesn't trust the 'apprentice' he's blackmailing fully." The ghost gave him a sheepish, almost guilty look, then gazed down at the floor to avoid his gaze. Robin continued, "You can go intangible, right? You carried me through that platform when we were against Slade. Just do that again. In and out in less than a second."

"And if we run into the fruitloop?"

"We start trying to get the remote for your probes instead. Lie."

"Lie? You expect me to just lie to him?"

"Tell him that the ghost barged into your room and tried to drag you away. If he's as predictable as I think he is, he'll try using the probes to stop you." Robin took a deep breath. "Slade will be holding the trigger used for your probes in the palm of his hand. We can grab it and destroy it then."

"Shit, sorry, this is all super confusing to follow." Danny was pacing now, hand under his chin as he was processing Robin's plan. Robin's fidgeted impatiently on the spot he was standing on. They needed to leave _now._

"Look, you can figure it out on the go. We need to get going." Robin grabbed his arm, mostly without thinking. Suddenly two large rings flared into existence above Danny, falling around him down to the waist. White hair fell back around his eyes and his blue eyes were replaced by stark green. Robin watched, almost mesmerized. Everything about Danny seemed to change, his very demeanor shifting into something else entirely, more otherworldly. Looking more closely at him, Robin could definitely describe him as ghostly. Danny turned to give him a questioning glance, which quickly turned into something more certain.

"I can clone myself. Does that help?"

Robin immediately raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, clone yourself? Like, fully functional, self aware clones?" This just put a whole wrench in his plans, and immediately his mind raced to piece together this new development. Danny looked almost sheepish, awkwardly raising his hand to rub at the back of his neck.

"Yeah. Sorry, it just kinda escaped me. I could go warn the Titans, let them know something's up." A second after he said that, his face contorted in what seemed like exertion before he began splitting apart. Like slipping out of a shell, a duplicate tore apart from him before resting to stand side by side with Danny.

"Can't hurt to try it. I can't give your clone the tracker though." Robin cradled it closer to his chest, inching away from the second Danny who had just tried to swipe at it. "If something happens to it… I just don't feel safe handing it off to your clone."

"But you said if we go far enough away we can activate it, right?" The original gesticulated wildly. "We won't even have to go looking for the Titans!"

"Exactly." Chimed in number two. It was doing nothing in helping Robin quell the impending headache he was getting trying to keep track of everything happening. "We'll just activate it normally this time, and-"

"Just, no." Robin recognized the feeling flooding his chest: fear. "Have your clone tell the Titans your plan failed. Tell them not to come here until the original you gets back to them, or if they've got an army ready to back them up. If they come here, the probes get to them before they get to us."

The clones exchanged questioning looks, before the second clone shrugs his shoulders and steps backwards, sinking into the nearest wall. He finger guns as he disappears.

"Catch you on the flip side."

He's gone in a moment. The first Danny turns to Robin, completely uncertain.

"So, you ready for a bit of possession?


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Surprise chapter drop! I know I've kept you guys waiting. Thank you all for the great feedback I've been receiving. I've really been struggling to write during this whole pandemic so it really motivates me to see you all waiting for the next installment. I hope you all are keeping safe. I might not update as much, but I'll try my best to keep writing my best. As always, enjoy the latest installment :)**

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The city sprawled out beneath Starfire. Had she not been so preoccupied with the searching, she would have lingered like she usually would on patrol, simply admiring the tiny people, scattering like those strange little creatures called insects. But now worry gnawed at her from the inside and she couldn't stop for a second without feeling like she might cry from guilt and concern. They'd been on many of these searches ever since friend Robin's disappearance, and have always turned up with the empty hand. But this one felt so much like the night they first realized that friend Robin hadn't returned home. Urgency rather than boundless joy powered her flight, her eyes not staying in one location for longer than a second before moving on. They had been desperate, had been cutting the corners as Raven put it, trying to locate him as fast as possible. Starfire had felt so helpless to something she could not begin to understand, nor control. And then the alarm went off. How could she begin to describe the feeling of her trust, care, and admiration being clawed and ripped out of her, only to disappear with their traitor into the smoke?

Starfire didn't know what to think about Robin. Even before he had donned Slade's symbol… There was the Red X. Robin had violated their trust, _her_ trust, before and yet she couldn't bring herself to believe that he would go so far as to betray them. Even though horrid, the Red X was for the benefit of the team. Or so she hoped. But even as she denied the accusations everyone threw Robin's way, in the back of her mind she knew that the Red X only became real to help Robin pursue Slade. The Titans may never have mattered to him. But she could have helped, stopped and intervened on his behalf. He was not strong enough to handle Slade on his own, no matter how much it hurt him to admit it. Cyborg had told her, the first time they talked privately after the betrayal, that his actions should never be her responsibility. And yet she couldn't ignore the way Robin looked at her on that roof, the hurt there as he stared back.

"Starfire!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wanted to be mad at Robin, and she should be.

"Starfire!"

But if she lost him, she would feel nothing but sadness.

"Starfire!"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she had barely any time to look up from where she was scanning the area to register the blur soaring towards her. The black and white thing smacked into her head on, catching Starfire off guard and sending them both careening towards the rooftops. Thankfully, Starfire righted herself in moments, gracefully readjusting herself and catching whatever flew into her by the scruff of their outfit. Her hand shook ever so slightly as she tried to contain her sudden spike of excitement. The person in her grip, it was…

"Friend Phantom!" She exclaimed, almost dropping him from shock. He desperately wiggled to get himself balanced again.

"Woah, Star, calm down!" He disappeared from her grasp, only to reappear floating upright straight in front of her. "Listen, I have something really important to-"

"Where is friend Robin, where have you been, are you hurt, what happened, did you see Slade-"

"Starfire, please chill." Phantom pleaded, awkwardly phasing away from the tight grip Starfire now had on his shoulders as she shook him.

"Chill as in lowering my body temperature, or chill as in relaxing?"

"Uh, relaxing." Phantom replied, raising an eyebrow. Starfire took a couple of deep breaths, remembering Raven's technique as she centered herself, folding her hands onto her chest. A serious pall settled over her face as she stood tall again.

"Please, tell me everything."

"Okay, but I'm not sure how much time I have." Phantom said, slowly descending onto the nearest roof, Starfire joining him shortly after. He rubbed his forehead with his palm, agitated and full of concern. "God, where do I even start?"

Before he could start rambling, Starfire held out her palm, other hand searching for her communicator. It didn't stop him from muttering something to himself. "Wait, let me contact Raven. And Cyborg, and Beast Boy too. They will want to hear everything." A press of a button and a call to everyone else was already going through. "Where is your communicator?"

"You're not even supposed to be here! You're supposed to be back at the tower and," Phantom passed as a pensive look flashed across his face. "Oh yeah, the communicator. Slade took it off me."

Starfire's earlier frenzied worries threatened to make her lose her calm again, but she tried brushing it off the best she could. It didn't stop her thoughts from taking the worst case scenario and running with it. There was a beep, and Phantom noticeably started, but Starfire simply knew that someone picked up her call.

"Friend Ra-"

"Raven!" Phantom stumbled into view of the camera, nervously waving to the empath, who even from the kind of blurry screen looked surprised. Raven narrowed her eyelids.

"Phantom? You're with Starfire? What happened?"

Another screen popped up, static filling half the image before a second camera feed popped into view.

"Whaaat!?" Beast Boy's loud voice even made Raven flinch slightly. He was leaning over Cyborg's shoulder, both of them over the main console of the living room. "Bro, you're alive! I mean, like, well, you know what I mean."

"What happened? Where's Robin?" Cyborg demanded, his suspicion clear on his face. Starfire sighed.

"Okay, so I don't know how much time I have until I get poofed out of existence," Phantom started, not caring how everyone shot him a confused look. "So save all questions for the end." Everyone fell silent. He continued. "Robin's not evil! Slade's been threatening him this entire time." Starfire's head turned to look at Phantom, a wide eyed relief and, sadly, surprise evident in her expression.

"I knew it!" Beast Boy pumped his fist in the air, only to awkwardly put his hand behind his back when Cyborg glared at him.

"What is he being threatened with?" He said, his suspicion still there.

"You're all full of nanoprobes. I don't know how Slade got them in there, but all I know is that he can kill you with them." Beast Boy was slack jawed, everyone else pensive. Starfire was lost in her thoughts, replaying over and over the look of sadness Robin had as he fought them. All this time, he was-

Raven gasped. "The dud. I knew it must have had a purpose." Phantom looked intrigued, but didn't bother pressing her statement.

"Where is Robin? Why aren't you with him? And how did you find out about all this?" Cyborg looked more serious than he ever had. Even Beast Boy shied away from him uncertainly.

"I can't really answer all of that right now but I'll answer the important ones," Phantom responded, voice shaking. "Robin's suit had a jammer, so our tracker didn't work. I got into Slade's lair, but Slade separated me from Robin. Robin helped me fight him but," His gaze drifted down, avoiding eye contact with the rest, "We lost. I saw Slade threaten him, and long story short now I've got probes too. Thankfully, the original me and Robin are back there figuring out a plan to deactivate the probes. They should activate the tracker too. But until then do _not _come help us."

Cyborg and Raven looked thoughtful, processing the information, before Beast Boy piped in.

"Wait, the original you?"

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you this earlier, but I can, or well, I guess the first me can clone himself. I'm the clone, but my form isn't stable."

"Great." Cyborg had his face in his hand, teeth gritting against each other. "The kid can clone himself too."

"I, Phantom, can't do it very well. He can make one copy only, and the clones can't do it at all. Takes too much energy and ectoplasm."

Beast Boy's eyes were sparkling with wonder but Cyborg raised up a hand in exasperation.

"Where's Robin, and well, you? We'll come and get you two out."

Phantom looked uncertain, debating his options. He seemed to settle on a decision before saying "Robin didn't want you to know the location just yet, but if you can brute force the probes off, find us at the-"

Phantom froze, face frozen in one of surprise before it suddenly morphed in a scream. He doubled over, and if Starfire looked closely enough, almost all of his body beneath the ghostly aura was glowing… orange. "Oh god oh god… "

"Friend Phantom!" Starfire crouched down to hold him, only for her to pull her hands away to find them covered in a layer of green. Everyone over the line was trying to communicate all at once, but Starfire was too focused on Phantom to hear them.

"Listen, Star, try to turn off the probes. Factory, old factory. Hatch on the-" Phantom looked like he was struggling with every syllable. He coughed violently, the same green liquid splattering on the concrete. "N-Near the ports. D-don't go-o there until they're o-o-off!" With that, Starfire watched him as he literally melted in her arms, green ectoplasm slipping through her fingers and pooling onto the floor. Now everyone was stock still.

"Well," Cyborg began. "Isn't this just fucking peachy. "


End file.
